Did Your Hospital Make the 2015 Honor Roll?

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Music Therapy is the specialized application of evidence-based music interventions to accomplish non-musical objectives through a therapeutic relationship with a Music Therapist – Board Certified (MT-BC). Whereas “music medicine” is the use of passive music listening in waiting rooms, surgery centers, emergency departments, and other hospital locations, “music therapy” has a rich history of research and is a recognized allied healthcare profession with comprehensive training requirements to prepare the MT-BC for the safely and effectively serving pediatric, adult medical-surgical, neurophysical rehab, and other healthcare populations.

Music therapy programs add value to organizations through increased patient satisfaction, procedural efficiency, program marketability, and clinical outcomes. Medical music therapy is an important part of many hospitals’ interdisciplinary teams in general medical-surgical units, and especially in rehabilitation, neonatal care, oncology, hospice, and pediatrics.

Pediatric music therapy is booming. Last year, the Atlanta, GA based George Center for Music Therapy, Inc. responded to the U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals by analyzing which hospitals “get it.” Now the results for the 2015 Honor Roll are in, and let’s see, as of this post’s original publication, which of the top 10 Children’s Hospital feature Music Therapy programs:

1. YES – Boston Children’s Hospital has four Board Certified Music Therapists! This top-ranked hospital provides 114 patient contacts hours per week, and the MT program can offer the hospital increased cost/benefit by training up to eight highly qualified Music Therapy Interns at a time.

2. YES – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia offers Music Therapy in oncology and child life.

3. YES – Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has five MT-BCs and a Music Therapy Internship program.

4. YES – Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston started a Music Therapy program in 2013. Congratulations!

5. YES – Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora includes Music Therapy through the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program.

6. YES – Seattle Children’s Hospital markets two MT-BCs in this beautiful video, and writes that “In fiscal year 2014, there were 1,526 music therapy sessions conducted hospital-wide.”

7. YES – Children’s Hospital Los Angeles promotes the Mark Taper and Johnny Mercer Artists Program, led by Alexandra Field, MT-BC, NICU-MT and heals patients through music, art, dance, drama, and expressive arts therapies.

8. YES – Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC provides Music Therapy through their Child Life Department.

9. YES – Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio has some awesome Music Therapists. Wanna meet them? Check out this video as well as their featured episode on “PediaCast,” the “pediatric podcast for parents” “with over 300 episodes, 2 million downloads, and listeners in all 50 states and more than 100 countries around the world.”

10. YES – Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. featured creative arts and “therapeutic music,” but has recently established a true Music Therapy program, naming Clarissa Karlsson, MT-BC, their Director of Music Therapy for the Children’s Center on Cancer and Blood Disorders, to focus on the Hematology and Oncology units. Huge Congratulations! See Clarissa in this great video.

YES YES YES! 100%

10 out of 10, 100% of America’s top-ranked Children’s Hospitals now provide Music Therapy for their patients, families, and staff. Music has been an important part of child development and wellbeing since antiquity, but Music Therapy has only emerged as a research and clinical expertise based healthcare profession within the last century. As this compassionate, evidence-based, innovative, non-invasive, non-pharmacological, cost-efficient, and highly-acclaimed treatment modality gains recognition, it may be time for your community or healthcare organization to hire a Board Certified Music Therapist.

TWELVE OUT OF TWELVE.

If you check out the U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals 2015-16: Honor Roll and Overview, you’ll notice that there are two additional hospitals tied for 11th place. The trend of top hospitals choosing Music Therapy continues; Both Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta feature Music Therapy programs. So indeed, 12 out of 12 of America’s top-ranked Children’s Hospitals understand the incredible value of Music Therapy.

And finally, as the George Center notes, “based on the method behind the rankings, it’s not likely that gains from music therapy programs are directly measured and accounted for.” “However,” as the highly respected Jamie George continues, “It DOES show us that the best of the best ‘get it’ when it comes to music therapy. They understand the impact music therapy can have on medical outcomes for patients, their satisfaction level, and the fiscal gains that are possible with medical music therapy.”

Give us a call at (727) 350-7897 or e-mail to [email protected] to welcome music therapy to your healthcare agency, too! Be among the best! And please be social; share this exciting update online and wherever you go. Follow Music Therapy St. Pete, LLC on Facebook and Twitter @mtstpete.